poppedmusic

Are We Lost

Released 23rd September 2012

I quite like debut EPs because they are a much better indicator, for me at least, of the sounds and concepts a band is capable of in their early days. Singles are all very well and good and if you actually have a physical copy of a single it might have at best some half arsed b-sides or some remixes, often crap, sometimes amazing. What I’m trying to get at is that this is neither of those things and Morain have created an EP that pulls together a very solid taster of what we can expect to hear from them. By no means am I saying that this is all they will deliver, but I like what I hear anyway.

The title track, Are We Lost, has some pretty good riffs, a very catchy bridge and chorus and it is one of my favourite things to say, but I really can hear people yelling it back at the gigs… eventually anyway. It has anthemic qualities I guess is the technical term. I mean you can tell me, the video for it is at the bottom, but I know I’d sing along. There’s passion and punch and those are definitely two important things alongside melody and harmony and not forgetting those riffs that create a great anthem.

Animals has as much vigour and punch though less of the anthem in it. By saying what I just did you might get the impression that I don’t think it’s as good. That would be an incorrect impression or assumption because I really like this track. The opening bars are classic, the guitar hook, the drum beat. My attention, it’s wanted and I’m giving it. There is something here that annoys me a little in this track and it’s as simple as the way some words are sung. Yes, I am being picky but I can’t stand the word “Darlin” being used in songs and the way it’s said here, greats. That aside this is an accomplished track with really nice interest. The rest of the track though, great! Really great the more I listen to it in fact.

The last two tracks, The World We Live In and Between The Lines, offer up more of the same as the first two tracks proving for one that this band is (over four tracks at least) consistent and have fantastic ability to pen a collection of different enough tracks that all work so well together. I’d be really interested in hearing the slower side of them, I have a feeling they could be blissfully intricate guitar and softer vocal affairs, but I think maybe only one or two on an album full of this would be just the ticket.

I quite like debut like EPs they give me a nice indication of what I might expect, or at least what I would like to see happen next, if I get as far as wanting to know what comes next. Are We Lost makes me want to know what more Morain have to give.

Watch the video for Are We Lost here: